TIPS ON HIRING THE 'RIGHT' SALES PERSON

Hiring new employees is always challenging; but recruiting and hiring salespeople is even more challenging. The process is rife with great rewards along with potential pitfalls. What follows is both an introduction to the process involved in hiring high performing sales staff, but also a leaping off point for you to explore this area more thoroughly so you can make the most informed decisions possible.

In our Mentoring Sessions, we talk about building a systematized, integrated business that includes a hiring process/system. Part of that process/ system includes a marketing strategy with clear positioning and differentiation, a quality review and control system, a lead generation system, a sales process, a flexible CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System, all of which leverages your salespeople to reach their greatest potential. Yes, I know; it’s a lot more work than simply hiring a rainmaker; but you want all the necessary pieces in place to best support your salespeople.

Next, you must clearly define the position with all responsibilities and capabilities and then decide on the exact KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) you expect the salesperson to reach. If you don’t have these fundamentals in place it’s much more difficult for a new salespeople to succeed.

To a certain extent, we all have experience in sales and most likely fulfilled the salesperson position yourself. This is extremely helpful information when you finally achieve a production level necessary to hire a salesperson.  This is because you know the “how” of creating sales and building excellent client relationships. You can now translate that knowledge into a systematic path so that others can get the same result you have.

First, be aware there are no shortcuts in this process. It takes time to find the right people, acclimate them to the culture and to train them in your systems. Sure, you can try to find “Super Stars” that start selling the moment they walk through the door, but this often results in pain later on. The best candidates aren’t necessarily the ones that can deliver the most sales in the shortest amount of time. In fact, top achieving salespeople often think about only one thing: closing sales. “Super Stars” tend to do and say anything to get a customer and in the long run they get you into trouble, by not being adaptable, trainable, controllable or willing to follow a system. We all know the ‘pain’ associated with this kind of salesperson.

Therefore, we strive to hire are sales professionals that can generate long-term relationships with customers, and who can convert and nourish those relationships.

The interview for salespeople is crucial. Most great sales people are great interviewers. However, you determine immediately they can’t sell themselves, nor do they fit with your company and culture, they probably won’t fit with your customers.  If they don’t pass the first interview, bring in the next candidate.

Salespeople often break out into two categories. One type will eventually go into business for themselves; the other will always work for someone else. Though both can fit for a while, the second type typically makes the best hire, if you want to reduce turnover in your sales force. Most business owners, want a long term relationships and to keep them producing year after year.

When you hire salespeople, you’re not just hiring an employee. You’re also choosing customers, since your salespeople play a major role in determining the types of customers you have and the relationship you have with them. You want to get it right and hire the salespeople that will bring you the kind of customers you desire.

Great salespeople are always in demand. Mediocre salespeople are fantastic sales people only when it comes to selling themselves (or interviewing).  Always dig deep in your questioning process. Find out whether they hit quotas and meet plans (how, what, when, how, where and why). Past results, awards and behaviors are the best indicators of future success. Believe it or not, the sales profession is one of the easier professions to objectively quantifiable results, with commission reports, production records and W-2’s.

So, the next decision in the hiring process is how you will structure the commission structure. Each type of payment structure attracts a different type of sales person.  For example: there is pure commission, draw plus commission, base salary plus commission, salary and incentives, or salary alone. But the first question you need to answer is, “Which structure fits YOU best?

There are definite opinions relating to each of these;

First, hiring solely commissioned salespeople because they’re the only ones truly invested in results, to hiring salaried employees, which are the best people to create teamwork and an overall investment in the company’s goals and not the individual's.          

Second, the wrong commission structure can potentially alienate the salespeople from the rest of the company. Your employees may view that salespeople work more for themselves than for the company. There are three things to consider:

Commissions typically account for a larger portion of pay when there is a short sales cycle  with high profitability, which is usually quite dependent on the salesperson’s abilities. Commissions play a smaller role when the sale requires greater technical knowledge with a longer sales cycle.  How does each plan best ‘fit’ your Cash Flow?

Third, the wrong commission structure can potentially alienate the salespeople from the rest of the company. Your employees may view that salespeople work more for themselves than for the company.

You run the risk when hiring salespeople that you sacrifice loyalty.  Seemingly with salespeople the sole motivation is money. You need to decide what is most effective in your environment to motivate your salespeople- don’t always assume it is money, nor should you negatively impact your culture or core values.

So, you’re ready to hire. Prior to making an offer follow your checklist of essential steps. (If you don’t have a checklist, create one). Ideas of what to include are:

- Commission Reports, Pipeline status, and W-2’s (past 3 years)

- References from past sales managers about their performance, and customer service levels.

- References from present/ past clients. Talk to the clients they lost.

- Who do you know that they know?  Get an unbiased testimonial from someone you know.

- Put them through a Psychometric Evaluation. (for example DiSC)

- Develop a real training program, over the next 90 days with materials/tests/manual.

- Lastly, have ‘key’ staff members interview them– other can see issues you cannot.